Author Comments:

So, usually I do a special page for New Year's DAY, but the thought occurred that, in this part of the world at least, it's really New Year's EVE that we celebrate. The actual 1st of the year is just for sleeping off the previous night's parties. So, this time I'm putting one last page up before 2014 ends, so let's all party and... be... merry...

Oh, who am I kidding, nobody's paying attention to any of that. You're too busy thinking "Wow, he's just HANDING shippers fanfic material now, isn't he?" aren't you? AREN'T YOU? I don't even know how it happened! I was trying to think of fancy party clothes for some of the girls, the thought occurred that Tabitha honestly looks better in a suit than a dress, and suddenly this page was sitting there done! And it's actually pretty good! I couldn't not use it! AT this point, the only way I can maintaining plausible shipping dependability is to point out that holiday pages aren't cannon, and even if they were, Tabitha'd probably escort ANYONE around like that just for the sake of getting in on the Fancy Party fun. Layla's probably just the only person she could get to come with her, and probably didn't expect Tabitha to start doing anything that could be misconstrued as "date stuff".

(I'm sure I'm severely overreacting, but I've seen a bunch of fandoms flip their lids over various shipping matters recently, and it's kind of scary to have even the slightest possibility of it happening around here. Nobody wants to dump tons of time and energy into telling a story, only to have people freak out because it threatens their precious OTP)

Anyway, the next real page will be up on Friday, though as I mentioned before, there won't be a new Voting Incentive until after I'm back from Ichibancon. See you guys next year!

User Comments:

What we celebrate really depends on your viewpoint. You see, YES, we do hold the parties the day before. But the "height" of these parties are always considered to be the switchover to the next day. So the most important part of the party is held on the "first".

As for the shipping, I honestly didn't even think about it until you mentioned it. Layla honestly just looks so... nonplussed about the entire thing, I didn't even think about it in any type of relationship context. Seriously, Layla rarely does the "There's no special emotions right now" thing. Okay, sure, she doesn't have the emotional highs and lows of Trigger, but she's usually displaying SOMETHING.

That's a good point, actually. I guess I just don't think about it "really" being Tomorrow until after I've gone to sleep, so all the New Year's festivities register as being on the 31st to me no matter what the clock says.

And yeah, now that I've actually slept a bit, the shipping rant looks kinda silly. You have to keep in mind I'd been up for around 30 hours at that point working on stuff. Rational thinking is kind of hard at that point.

And yeah, the shipping rant seems a little silly. Your fanbase seems to be more focused on characters getting a hug from anyone (or killing someone), rather than seeing them in a specific relationship.
...But, if you want, I could go through every major character and try and match them with someone. Just because.

I'm with the others on this one-doesn't feel shippy, more like that's just how they happened to pose for this, and it actually kinda makes sense given a look at the character backgrounds I think?
(Layla strikes me as someone comfortable in upper-class societal occasions like this one, and Tabitha perferring suits seems reasonable, if a bit surprising-now that I think on it, has Tabitha always dressed like a tomboy?)

She has a miniskirt in the Mad Scientist Convention arc, but since then she's mostly worn short shorts. Her wardrobe got more boyish around the same time that she got taller, to contrast against Layla's more "feminine" style (when she's not lounging around in jeans and a sweatshirt, I mean)

The Myth isn't important in this instance. What's important is that, after staying awake for 30 hours, they became mildly delerious and happy. I think the same thing happened to you.

Okay, fine, the Myth now is important. You can have about double your facilties at over 30 hours if you, every 6 hours or so, have a 20 minute "nap". Proven by Mythbusters in the Deadliest Catch Special.